Vegan Lao Laab / Larb

Note: This is a very intense flavoured dinner.

The flavours from the many herbs is very present, and its an explosion of flavours. If you don’t wish to make the flavour too intense, then half the amount of herbs and curry paste. But it’s suppose to be intense and have a lot of flavour.

This Asian salad is mostly herbs instead of the normal salad greens, which gives the salad lots of flavour.

This Asian style ‘meat’ and salad mix is the unofficial national dish of Laos, but also a dish eaten in the northern part of Thailand, as we used the Vegan green Thai Curry Paste for the salad.

The dish is part cold and part warm. The spicy herbal salad has a sweetness from the pineapple and spiciness from the curry paste, and this is served cold. The meat substitute is served warm. They’re mixed together and eaten straight away, so you can feel both the warm and the cold elements at the same time.

As a main course dinner it might be very flavourful for some, so cutting down on the herbs and curry paste is okay for a main course, but as a side dish it’s great to contain all of the flavours. This dish is also paired well with the Glazed Lotus Roots as pictured above, the mellow sweetness from the lotus is a great side for this dish.

Wash all the herbs in a strainer, let them dry while preparing the rest.

Chop the pineapple into small pieces, add to the salad bowl. Very finely chop the aubergine, halve the cherry tomatoes and add to the bowl.

Peel and julienne the carrot, and slice the spring onions thinly diagonally. Add to the bowl.

Roughly chop the mint leaves (don’t add the stems). Finely chop the coriander and the basil. Soft green stems are ok to add, but if they’re hardy and woody then take off the leaves and chop them. Add all herbs to the bowl.

Squeeze out the juice from the lime and add to the bowl along with the Vegan Green Thai Curry Paste and soy sauce. Mix well. Put in the fridge while preparing the warm elements.